Synth Single Review: “Tokyo Rain” by INTERDIT

by Karl Magi

INTERDIT’s “Tokyo Rain” paints vivid pictures of rain-wet streets, shining neon and contemplative relaxation as shadows sweep from low-end pulsation and tones like flickers of headlights through raindrops levitate with a lonely sensation. A rhythm with shaping slowness supports silvery notes that carry a melody evoking a thoughtful, quiet day alone in a small apartment.

Purple and green flickering casts a ghostly gleam on the windowpane as falling rain is evoked by the tapping fragility of the open-voiced synth that glides slowly. A mixture of loneliness and peace permeates the high notes that slowly move past like cars drifting down the street, swishing through the water pooled there.

Contemplation and gentleness pour from the wandering melodic pattern, capturing me within each note’s tranquility and melancholy. Drums burst to add shape to the silky, serene sounds that eventually fade into silence.

Synth Single Review: “Running Out of Time” by SynthPrincipal

by Karl Magi

SynthPrincipal’s “Running Out of Time” starts a drifting temporal journey with a plethora of effervescent lights twinkling through a foundational rumble, expanding outward with dreamy softness. Rhythmic undulation is joined by kicking drums and a knotted bassline while distinct flickers of starry illumination glitter, cast across the blackness of space.

Slipping like blurry luminescence as a time machine jumps, the melody is an exploration of what hope remains despite the difficulties of modern life. Unfolding across a broad sonic stage, tender notes capture nostalgic yearning for a future we never had. A melodic pattern weaves through me, evoking youthful imaginings, a little wistful in its memory.

Floating in hypnotic motion, galactic sheen unfolds in lightly touching tones before drums tap and move in and out, creating percussive contrast. Returning to the main melody, imagery of moving across the unending vastness of space and time radiates from the notes as they glow delicately. Interleaved percussion and drums propel the beat while trance-inducing notes shimmer like the passing universe before the song ends.

Synth Single Review: “Empty World” by Aeronexus & Video Kids

by Karl Magi

Aeronexus & Video Kids’ “Empty World” explores the entanglement of two disparate realities as it begins gently with computerized tones shining and reverberating in a tumbling line, full of a leaping melody. Groovy percussion and a jingling tambourine support the quickly flying vocals, moving with complicated feelings, in an exuberant performance.

Funky bass tangles with the punchy underlayer while the lead singer smoothly and vibrantly punches home the encouraging, memory-filled melody. As the exciting synthesized glow spreads, the song’s emotional depth takes hold of me and I am carried on its tide. Swinging beats add synth-pop joy to them while glockenspiel tones spin out in iridescent lines.

A voiceover echoes before the vocalist carries the joy, release and nostalgia within the lyrics. A synth solo accelerates with uplifting, wildly soaring energy that bursts over the music like a supernova. The percussion briefly drops away before the lead singer brings back life and gruff power before silence falls.

For our narrator, “a thought so in its place takes hours to come by,” and by then the world has already passed them by. Experiencing “arrested dreams and fear in Paradise,” the two aspects of the character are told, “I’ll heal you, release you, then take you out of time.” They ask to be released from “this corner of my mind” and healed.

After spending all of their life “living in the calmness of this empty world” while trying to keep the past’s magic alive, they find that “it’s burning up my soul.” It makes for an empty world still, as our storyteller notes, “we’re out of time for reason and for rhyme and it goes by.”

Both aspects of the character are “the bearers of the earth divide” as Heaven and Hell collide. They go on to say, “don’t let it squeeze you, consume you, have you forsake the present time.” To conclude, the narrator says that “there’s no need to take you to a place that lives only in your mind.”

Synth Single Review: “Calamity” by jacket.

by Karl Magi

jacket’s “Calamity” carries plaintive calm as it drifts into wide-open spaces with a melodic line floating on a synth that exudes emptiness tinged by gentle sensations. Rhythmic motion adds powerful guidance to tones that paint images of a space full of ethereal, haunting presences flowing like spectral water. Spangled synth splashes and the atmosphere shines softly.

Darkness surges from percussive weight and the melodic pattern transmits a mixture of soothing emotion and hurt on a tide of sapphire brilliance. A rushing tumble of notes cascades in luminous phosphorescence as the underpinnings thunder, flickering sounds tripping and falling headlong into a wordless voice crying with gripping passion and broken feeling.

A glittering world unfolds around me, grasping me with its emotional strength and evoking complex internal landscapes like thousands of shattered mirrors. Flashing fragments distantly hover above the shadows below before silence falls.